: right. >> -- if this whole fiscal cliff disaster happens. patti ann: now how was it spun this way? there's a lot more being negotiated than just those tax rates for wealthy people. what about the fact that we have the $16 trillion debt, and these plans hardly do anything to address it? why is that not the focus? >> yeah, they do almost nothing to address it. even if the president got what he wanted in taxes which is raising taxes on americans who make above $250,000 a year, i think it would be about $850 billion over the next ten years, it wouldn't even be one year's deficit. so there, i mean, there are a lot of other things involved. republicans have demanded real spending cuts, mostly spending cuts in the entitlement programs. and what we've seen in the past few weeks is as that has been discussed among democrats, there's been a hardening of opinion that they really do not want to make any cuts or any trims really in any of the big entitlement programs, medicare, medicaid and social security. patti ann: all right. well, byron york, that's